SunChips Go Compostable, Week 02

So the new SunChips bag has been in the compost staging bin for a week. It has been covered by some compostables, but there's not a lot in that bin yet. I pulled the bag to the top of the heap for its weekly photo shoot and it doesn't look much the worse for wear having been in the can for a week. It's still pretty crinkly, that's for sure. One encouraging note, though--I think I'm getting a good "green/brown" mix in the staging bin because when I mixed it up there was definite steaminess going on in there. That's a sure sign that the forces are at work!

In case you're wondering, the green/brown mix is the ration of wet and dry ingredients in your compost. Green would be things like fruit and vegetables, grass clippings, coffee grounds, etc. Brown is the tougher, drier stuff--paper, cardboard, egg shells, dry leaves, twigs, that sort of thing. The ratio should be about 50/50 (by weight, not volume). My biggest challenge has been adding enough brown products to the mix. The green ingredients from my kitchen seem to pile up very quickly! My biggest "brown" contribution has actually turned out to be toilet paper tubes and egg cartons--I save the TP tubes up, slice them up the side and then run the flattened sheet through the paper shredder. The egg cartons (the fiberboard kind) I just tear into small pieces and add to the daily collection.

Now that the warm weather has arrived, I think, for good, the weeds are going to go crazy and I'm going to have no shortage of green mix. I better start stocking up on those toilet paper tubes.